Gut-wrenching deja vu
http://www.rleague.com/content/article.php?id=39118
Gut-wrenching deja vu
For the 2nd week in a row, Cronulla lost a last-minute heartbreaker to an in-state rival. And for the 2nd week in a row, they got absolutely no favours from the men in pink.
After leading Manly by 13-0 with less than 20 minutes remaining, the Sharkies self-destructed to even let the Sea-Eagles back in with a chance. But regardless, they still would have won if a blatant 79th minute forward pass from T-Rex Williams to Daniel Harrison had been picked up by the officials.
Seconds later, Daly Cherry-Evans slotted a field-goal off his wrong foot to tie it up and, well, out of concern for the health and well-being of Cronulla fans we'll leave out what happened next.
Yesterday at Ausgrid Stadium in Newcastle, it was more of the same for the boys from the Shire. They did manage to cut their error/penalty count almost in half (just 11 combined compared to 20 last week.) They also did a very good job securing possession, completing 33/38 sets at an 87% clip.
But sometimes things just don't go your way. For example, three of Newcastle's four tries were legitimate yet all required varying degrees of luck to make them happen.
James McManus' try in the 33rd minute was just reward for a 70 metre line-break from dynamo half Jarrod Mullen. But the manner in which it ended was very fortunate; Kurt Gidley caught the ball 10 metres out as first receiver, floated across to his left and misfired what ended up being a triple cutout pass, one which bounced up perfectly off the grass into the waiting arms of McManus.
And 5 minutes later, just before halftime, Mullen launched a regulation long kick from halfway which looked set to roll over the sideline 10 metres out. But the pill took an sharp bounce back in-field which forced Nathan Gardner to play it and get tackled in-goal for the line-drop-out. 2 plays later, Shannon McDonnell twisted the knife in deeper to put the Sharks down 8 at halftime.
Junior Sau's try in the 49th minute was incredibly skillful but rather lucky all the same. Mullen threw a rare bad pass that was behind and to the left of Sau. But the Kiwi test centre managed to slow down and trap the ball against his body using only his left arm!
While those tries were all indisputable, it was the opening try to Akuila Uate that received the benefit of a very large doubt. A pinpoint Mullen kick saw Uate and Matt Wright contesting for the bomb. Despite replays showing that the ball brushed Akuila's right wrist, a try was awarded (not even a benefit of the doubt try!)
That was bad. The 61st minute penalty on John Williams for being in front of Gardner (the man passing to him) was ludicrous. Although Williams initially overran the ballcarrier, he slowed up and actually moved backwards to receive the pass. No question at all that the ball traveled backwards out of the hands. Yet a penalty, not just a scrum, was given.
2 plays later, Kade Snowden was pinged for a tackle-continuation penalty after referee Jason Robinson called held while the ballcarrier Matt Hilder was in the air being driven to the ground. As Gary Belcher astutely pointed out "You can't pull out of a tackle while he's calling held when the player's in the air!" The penalty negated what should have been a fumble by Hilder just 30 metres out from his own line.
Then in the 77th minute, with Cronulla having fought back to make it 24-20 on their penultimate set of the game, Luke Douglas returned the kickoff to his own 15 metre line and Richie Fa'aoso applied a textbook forearm to the throat which commentator Mark Braybrook pointed out "could have easily been a penalty, we've seen those penalised today quite a bit."
Immediately after, Paul Aiton went for a quick scurry out of dummy half and made 10 metres to his own 25. Steve Southern made the tackle from behind and proceeded to get back to marker by going straight through the ruck and literally over the top of Aiton's back, pushing him down. The reason Aiton immediately got up while staring daggers at Robinson and throwing his hands out in exasperation is because we've seen dozens of far lesser ruck infractions draw a penalty this year.
2 plays later, with the Sharks having advanced all the way to the Knights' 25 metre line, Gardner put a chip through for himself on 4th tackle. As he attempted to pierce two Newcastle forwards, (Southern and Fa'aoso) Southern closed the gap and turned and dropped his outside shoulder in, straight into the upper chest and neck of Gardner. It was borderline high, but there is no doubt in the world that it was late.
It was so flagrant and conspicuous that after receiving the kick, the Knights' Tyrone Roberts slowed to a jog and stared at the referee just like all the players around him did, assuming a penalty would be blown. It was only after the ref yelled 'play on' that all the players restarted, both sides obviously shocked at the no-call. Belcher's instincts served him well again, immediately yelling "How's that alright?" after the instruction to play on. Upon seeing the replay, he simply said "You are kidding!"
Now of course if any of the last 3 penalties were given, there's no guarantee that Cronulla would have scored. But the tide of momentum was certainly with them after scoring the last two tries while looking much more threatening over the final quarter; in my opinion they would have been slightly favoured to at least tie the game at 24-all with the kick to come.
So despite thoroughly outplaying their opposition for the 2nd week in a row, all the Sharkies ended up with was another stomach-churning defeat clutched from the jaws of victory. It would be hard enough for a championship team such as the Dragons or Storm to bounce back from this agonizing 2 game stretch, let alone the Sharks whose fragile psyche has been exposed all too often over the past few seasons.
But this Cronulla team has a different feel to it than the ragtag bunch of the two previous seasons. This will be an enormous test of character to see if they can bounce back a vengeance. With two winnable games remaining before their week 9 bye: versus North Queensland and at Souths, the Sharks have to at least split if not win both, just to prevent a 5 game losing streak going into the bye which would wreak havoc on the players' minds over the week's break.
